Many business owners don’t understand how content marketing can help them make more money. They think advertising should just be about designing graphics and sharing in whatsapp groups.

Let me ask you some questions.

Are you always angry when people talk about you and you find out that they said something nasty? What if you can monetize gossip?

There was a time people had to go all the way to the riverside or the forest in order to gossip about others. Nowadays, our phones, the internet, social media and gossip blogs allow us to talk about people almost round the clock.

I don’t think any generation has had more gossiping than this one.

Just before you publish that book or start that business campaign, I want you to think about these first. Imagine you and I are in a room right now and I have a gun to your head.

“What if you can monetize gossip? “

Damilola Jonathan Oladeji

I am asking you, “what do people say about you”. If you don’t know the right answers, the gun goes off. Can you accurately predict 3 things people discuss when they talk about you?

Every day, conversations are going to happen, whether you like it or not. People are going to talk about YOU.

What they discuss, is your brand.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, says “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”

By consistently creating quality content, you attract the quality of readers that would engage with and patronize your brand. Good content is promoted by readers and consequently, the brand is promoted.

I think now that the quality of my articles is the biggest triggers for traffic and sales. My stories capture exactly what I want people to see and talk about when they think about me.

I wrote an article last week that quickly went viral with several shares, responses, emails and prospects.

Note that this article started as just a Facebook post. In fact, let me just let you in on a secret. Almost everything I have published; ebooks, web articles, stories, anthologies, all started as Facebook posts. I shared about how to use the social writing strategy to finish your own book this year in that article.

I’m sure a lot of readers couldn’t imagine why they had been procrastinating on their journey to publishing or content writing as a business tool. Truth is, the knowledge industry is booming and will continue to grow. Everyone should write, publish and market themselves and their brands. It’s getting so much easier every day to achieve these things.

Creating Content is Easy

So, how do I write all this content and make sure they stay relevant across various platforms and formats? I ask 5 questions whenever I am writing or collecting content about my brand. These questions are as follows:

1. Does this content help my reader in a clear and simple way? Clarity is a core ingredient of business branding and storytelling.

2. Can my reader quickly and easily digest this?

3. Is story true, experiential and actionable? Does it give enough information that people can act upon?

4. What actions do I want my readers to take after reading this content?

5. How do I plan to get paid for this knowledge I am sharing.

Now, I don’t consider myself a product marketer. I place more focus on my services than my products. However, this has not stopped me from having a way to use my stories to build awareness in such an interwoven way.

I hardly have to place adverts about my books or writing courses. The reason is this. The minute I am able to answer those 5 questions listed, I always tell stories that leave the reader talking about what they need and how they think I can help them. Some of my prospects send emails requesting information about my course and how I can help them harness their skills as leaders who have stories to tell.

All they had to do was read one single article I read. You will never understand the power of stories until you see results like this. Whatever people are reading when they find you, goes a long way to determine how they will approach you and your brand.

The job of any story, content, a published book is to drive the conversations people have about you. Not talking about your brand in a strategic way, is a recipe for useless gossip. You want to monetize every chit chat about you this year.

By visiting any of my pages, searching for me on google, reading an article I wrote, you will always know what actions to take and how to reach me. My business process and brand is one that’s clearly defined through my website and social media platforms such that my customers already know what they want before they message me.

It’s like doing the job of a hype man. You want to dictate the tune and create a perception of your product or service that encourages profit.

“The job of any story, content, a published book is to drive the conversations people have about you.”

Damilola Jonathan Oladeji

Let’s go back to the exercise. Imagine you had a gun to your head, and I asked you to list 3 things people talk about when they think of you. What would be those things? Now when you have that list of three, leave a comment of your list.

Then, make sure that everything you share this month includes something about them. This is how you make people think about you, and talk about you whenever they are tackling problems they want to pay hard cash to resolve.